Monema Walker, 1855

Pan, Zhaohui, Zhu, Chaodong & Wu, Chunsheng, 2013, A review of the genus Monema Walker in China (Lepidoptera, Limacodidae), ZooKeys 306, pp. 23-36 : 24-25

Monema Walker, 1855

Monema Walker, 1855: 1102,1112. Type species: Monema flavescens Walker, 1855: 1112, by monotypy.

Cnidocampa Dyar, 1905: 952. An unnecessary replacement name for Monema Walker, 1855, [not preoccupied by the plant genus Monema Greville, 1827].

Description.

Moths medium-sized, body yellowish. Male antennae filiform and thicker than in female. Labial palpi extremely long, more than three times eye diameter. Forewings with R3 + R4 stalked from R5 and R2 stalked with their stem. Hindwings with M1 and Rs stalked. Forewings with two narrow brown fasciae running from apex to 3/4 and 1/3 of inner margin respectively; basal part of forewing bordered by proximal fascia yellow, rest brown. Hind tibiae with two pairs of spurs.

Male genitalia: tegumen narrow; uncus narrow and long, usually with short ventral process at apex; gnathos narrow and long, nearly as long as uncus; juxta with lateral elongate process or spines; valva elongate, with apically saccular process; saccus usually long and large, more than half of valva’s width.

Female genitalia: posterior apophysis long, anterior apophysis very short and less than the half length of posterior one; sclerotized exterior flap at posterior margin of ostium bearing minute hair; ductus bursae very long, more than the half length of the abdomen, base narrow and straight, apical part wider and spiraled; corpus bursae ovate, large; a pair of signa trigonal, bearing spines.

The larva belongs to the nettle-type, and is known only for Monema flavescens . Its final instar larvae are 19-25mm in length. Head yellowish brown. Thorax yellowish green. Dorsum with a large purple-brown spot shaped as a dumbbell. Subdorsal scoli on T2-A9 and lateral scoli on T2, T3 and A2-8 ( Fig. 22 ) ( Long et al. 2008).

The cocoon of Monema flavescens Walker is very hard and shaped as a sparrow-egg. It is white, with longitudinal brown stripes ( Fig. 23 ).

The genus is related to Hyphorma Walker, 1865, but differs from the latter by the shorter terminal segment of the labial palpi and the stalked R2 and R3-5 in the forewings. Scopelodes Westwood, 1841 and Phocoderma Butler, 1886 also have very long palpi, but the absence of a tuft of hair in 2nd or 3rd segments distinguish them from Monema (Hering 1931).

Key to the species and subspecies

1	Wings mostly pale black, brown or pale reddish	2
-	Wings mostly yellow or yellowish brown	3
2	Wings mostly pale reddish	Monema coralina
-	Wings mostly brown to pale black	Monema flavescens flavescens (Black form)
3	Frons red	Monema flavescens rubriceps
-	Frons yellow	4
4	Saccus long, aedeagus straight	5
-	Saccus short and wide, aedeagus S-shaped	Monema meyi
5	Gnathos narrow and long; juxta long, ending in a tuft of long spines each side	Monema tanaognatha sp. n.
-	Gnathos short; juxta short, ending in 1-3 long spines each side	Monema flavescens flavescens

Figures

Figures 22 - 23. Larva and cocoon of Monema flavescens flavescens Walker. 22 larva 23 cocoon.